


The Fountain at the End of the Road

by erohani, eskandarrohani (erohani)



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Universe, Gen, Minor Violence, Poetry, Threats of Violence, Vanitas-centric (Kingdom Hearts), Zine: The Shadow You Cast: A Vanitas Appreciation Zine (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27592915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erohani/pseuds/erohani, https://archiveofourown.org/users/erohani/pseuds/eskandarrohani
Summary: I told the Master I’d break you inbut really I meantI’d break you.
Relationships: Vanitas & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 10





	The Fountain at the End of the Road

**Author's Note:**

> Written for _[The Shadow You Cast: A Vanitas Appreciation Zine](https://twitter.com/VanitasZine)_.

It’s called the Badlands  
because there is nothing here  
but tornadoes that stampede through the dust   
and strip cliffs of their faces,   
and a sun overhead that never falters  
and beats down until your retinas bloom  
with spots of blue-violet-white  
and your skin blisters.  
In this graveyard  
the only moisture comes from clammy hands  
that cling to weapons  
and the gushing wounds they tear.  
I have walked this world from end to end and top to bottom  
and never once found an oasis.

Ripped into being from the darkest part of your shadow  
with teeth sharpened by the same glorious purpose that shattered your spine  
I am here and I claw my existence  
from dirt that has not tasted blood since the time of fairy tales.  
With nothing but boredom as a close friend,  
I am here and I am waiting.

I have:  
muscles to stretch  
the edge of my blade to test  
a birthright to claim  
but my inheritance takes the shape of a two-handed Keyblade  
and the question that burns a hole in my mouth:  
_why should I be reforged with someone so brittle?_

He cut you open and scraped out everything of value  
so what good are your remains?

Ventus

Ventus

Ventus—

I told the Master I’d break you in  
but really I meant _I’d break you_.

With the names Terra and Aqua on your lips  
and a mind numbed by devotion  
your only use is target practice.  
Defects are twisted into your every fiber:  
a bleeding heart  
an echochamber skull  
soft hands that deal softer blows—  
_so who do you think you are looking at me like I’m something ruined ?_

I am:  
the heel grinding your face into the dust,  
a jagged grin painted with blood,  
the Master’s chosen apprentice,  
the heir of the apocalypse,  
a beast of unnatural birth whose shadow splinters to smother worlds.  
I am the very best part of you.

This

is who 

_I am._

You call me pawn  
you call me monster  
you call me baby fanatic with a fire-blackened tongue. 

Call me whichever makes your blood run hot and cook in your veins.

_Vanitas_

_Vanitas_

_Vanitas._

Explain this:  
If I am the inferior half   
_then why were you the one rendered hollow?_

Smeared across the Badlands with a shredded inner sanctum,  
you were destroyed  
you were _destroyed  
_and he abandoned you on that spit of sand to die  
and I was left to linger in that barren wasteland with its merciless sun  
and the endless swarm of my own twitching refuse because he knew I would endure   
he entrusted me with the duty you were so unworthy of.  
He chose me.  
He chose me.  
_He chose me  
_for you were weak but the X-blade is a two-handed weapon and _who do you think you are  
_denying me water after so many years of drought.  
You want them to end you? That’s _my_ fucking right.  
I get to end you  
I get to cleave you  
I get to have you.  
I’ve waited so long and now you won’t even bare your teeth at me?  
Why bare your throat and be a sacrifice when together we could devour the sun? 

All roads end with me. You’ll find your way inevitably.

It’s called the Badlands 

because the promise of no relief is 

eternal 

and all moisture must be rendered from something 

warm 

and living. 

I am here, Ventus, and I am _thirsty_.


End file.
